1. Field
Certain embodiments of the invention relate generally to displaying information by utilizing computer-based environments, and, more particularly, to navigation and interaction in computer-based virtual environments that represent real-world events, life memories, meeting places, and other venues, enabling users to locate, contribute, and share personal information with other users while creating virtual representations of individuals, groups, or events in an animated two or three-dimensional world format.
2. Description of the Related Art
The existence of an environment where people can have and share experiences is acknowledged as a primary requirement for effective communication and collaboration. This is exceptionally valuable during traumatic and stressful periods of loss, instances of accomplishment or celebrations, and other benchmarks within human and animal life. Collaboration in the real world typically occurs at specific locations at which people can see and hear each other, and thereby communicate. The physical locations where people meet have boundaries (for example, walls) that separate the locations from one another. These boundaries serve to limit what people can see and hear, and therefore allows these locations to provide a structure for collaboration. Physical locations can also provide a structure of information. Information objects, such as music, photographs, videos, and graphic images, can be placed in a location, and arranged in various sub-locations, to enable people to find and organize specific information such as historic events, affinities, individual attributes and relationship between family and friends. Furthermore, physical locations can be designed for specific types of work or collaboration. For example, an individual's office is designed for individual work, while a conference room is designed for cooperative work among multiple participants.
The development of computer-mediated communication has created potential for people to collaborate and interact with others in new ways. For example, a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) is a computer-based, distributed, virtual space where people can meet and interact with each other, with agents, or with virtual objects provides an alternate venue for communication. CVEs are implemented to reflect real world interaction by providing a text-based system for interaction, or a two or three-dimensional graphical virtual world that is visualized for virtual interaction. Virtual worlds are built on coding protocols that use a metaphor of an imaginary place or the real world without its physical limitations to define what can and cannot be done. A virtual world can be represented using graphics, images, video, force feedback, and audio data to define a representation of a place that can be accessed by one or more users within a distributed computer system. Typically, the virtual world enables multiple users to simultaneously perceive and interact with the virtual world and with each other through different computers that are connected by a network. For example, virtual communities such as Linden Lab's “Second Life” provide a three-dimensional, persistent virtual world in which users interact with each other (socially and economically), the local environment, and with software agents using virtual characters in a cyber space. The degree of interaction between the users and the virtual world is implemented by one or more computer applications that govern such interactions as simulated physics, exchange of information between players, and the like.
User participation in a virtual world can be driven by, for example, social, educational, and business motivations. While virtual worlds have primarily been adopted to offer new spaces for promoting socialization, they have also exhibited potential to support collaboration by providing new ways to communicate, and increasing the awareness of the participants and available resources, without the physical space and time constraints of the real world. For example, while an individual, who is geographically distant from a location where an impromptu conference, wedding, funeral or other event is being held, would be physically unable to attend this event, this individual would be able to participate in such an event were it held in a virtual world via a network. Nevertheless, the limitations of existing virtual communications may still prevent this individual from sharing physical information objects such as notes, papers, and presentations with the other participants. Therefore, while virtual worlds provide a mechanism through which better and more effective collaboration can be enabled by providing new ways for people to interact and communicate, the nature of the interactions between users in a virtual world can be limited by the constraints of the system implementing the virtual world.